Dear Daya bai
After
reading the narration of your experience in the form of a letter to Goi, I too
felt it would be effective to narrate my experience in the same manner.
It
was not just the curiosity to be a day with a well acclaimed personality that
led me to visit and spend a day with you. After reading your biography
‘Pachaviral’ I was longing to meet you, that time I was carried away by the
uncompromising battle that you waged against injustice and enormous strength in
you to challenge all odds in life without an iota of fear. I had to wait few
more years to realize my intense desire to visit you though I had met you
earlier.
Today
the world knows your long walk to the life that you wished to live, the lonely
battles that you waged against the powerful, how you declassed and became one
among the tribal community of rural village far away from your native place,
how you lived a simple life as a symbol of peace, harmony and compassion in the
midst of all fierce and destructive mainstream way of life. You have become an
icon of gallant effort to walk the talk, firm struggle for justice, and
liberation from all outward shackles that makes one victim of dualities/compromises
in life. I am sure it’s not all about your life- the inner conflicts that you
went through, the pain that shattered you, the moments that you wept as an ordinary
woman, the moments of darkness that engulfed your being, vulnerability in the
midst of chaos and confusion, your long journey through the dark tunnel in
utter helplessness, the amount of tears that spilled over and myriads of other
matters that disturbed you might not have enchanted the many who were thrilled
and celebrated your marvelous life.
You
called me several times over the phone after my departure from Bhopal although
you had told me the details of location and how to reach there. I could feel
the concern of a mother who could not relax until her son reaches an unknown
destination safe. You were there at the gate with a warm smile that radiated
love and compassion in the true sense. I was not surprised to see your simple home
beside the hill that was not different from the shelter of an ordinary villager
but for a circular space for group meeting with a bamboo top floor. I could
really feel your ‘uncivilized’ life, no chair to sit (two chairs were there for
Chandu and Ashuthosh, two pet dogs of Daya bai) no dining table, no equipments
essential for modern life, one room full of equipment for agriculture, some
books beside the bed made of mud, a clothe made almarah to keep your
cotton sarees, all added to the poise to your real life. I could feel your
potent fight against market economy, though you don’t claim so, that the urban
middle class and upper middle class intellectuals fail to adopt or even
recognize in their fight against globalization. Though you did not use any jargons
from the dictionary of an intellectual or try to theorize and give ideological
explanations for the meaningful way of life that you adopted and principles
that you imbibed and practiced in your life, I could sense the depth of your
vision and commitment. I realized people who live fully without contradictions or
minimum inevitable contradictions do not theorize every act they engage and take
credit for that. They live it without much sound and fury and that is the beauty
of it. I could feel you were simply living a higher value of life just like an
ordinary person in your neighborhood. Of course you must be conscious about
your act but more were outcome of values internalized without complexity and
thus reflected in action naturally. The
wrinkles on your face could not screen the reflections of straight forward life
and elegance of your nature.
I am
happy to know that the world recognizes you, individuals and organizations invite
you for various programmes, give you awards, some of the enlightened beings
support you and encourage you. However I am afraid if some of them were only
showcasing the vivacious and meaningful life that you live courageously instead
of making any attempt to imbibe the values in their own life first and spread
out it in the society. I wish those who really share your views and appreciate
your meaningful life should exhibit it by imbibing your values in their own
life that would be a more valuable award for you. I wish if you were not just
showcased but lived. I was not surprised when I heard from you how the students
of elite private schools listen to you and sit like a ‘statue’ without evincing
any response of a living human being. As you rightly said education system sucks
the vitality and their intrinsic ability to be creative. I also wish the way
you live is not conceived as something peculiar that could be emulated rarely
by exceptional people. I wish people see
the ordinary in you than the extraordinary so that they appreciate you are just
living with the sensitivity, compassion and sense of justice and equality that
everyone is expected to live.
When
you narrated how you started talking to Chandu and Ashuthosh over the phone when
you go out, I could really feel your bonding with every living and nonliving
things around you. I did not feel it as a mystic relationship with your pet
dogs. I could really experience the pain that you went through when a hen died
and you went fasting. I had no doubt when you narrated how you communicate with
birds and animals. In fact you are inextricably connected with everything
around you. So you could make the barren land fertile with your own effort, you
could find your food from your land; you could find most of the resources from
local surrounding itself. Shouldn’t we learn from you? Shouldn’t we start
living your values and principles? You are another example how compassion is a higher
value of life than mere sympathy, an essential ingredient of true love.
When
you narrated how you were tortured in the police station and later you lost
your teeth, as a routine incident in life I thought about many other people who
create history out of mundane experience of life or unintentional ‘heroic’
actions. I could really see how you take up the fight against tyranny of the
powerful and injustice towards the vulnerable as a normal course of life and
its awful consequences as its normal outcome.
I
did not try to see what I wanted in your life according to my perspective and wish.
I did not try to approach your life and work with my own parameters and framework.
I don’t want to see you as a solution for all the issues in the world. There
are diverse ways and means to tackle the problems that the world faces today.
One could easily point out better ways to your way of life and response towards
injustice. One can ask myriads of questions on what you did in the past. Why
couldn’t you form an organization? Why didn’t you try to organize the tribal
women? Why didn’t you engage in other means to empower the marginalized? Does
your single army fight bring radical change in society and existing system? I
have answers for such questions. Let Daya bai find her own path. She is not the
only woman in the world to find solution for all issues. Let us not see her as
an incarnation of omnipotent God. Ultimately she is a human being, one among us
who realized the value of living beyond her own life.
With Love
Shibu
